An aromatic alcohol and a heterocyclic aromatic alcohol may be used as a raw material of a medical drug, agrichemicals and the like, or a plasticizer and a paint solvent, and thus are useful in organic synthetic chemistry. An aromatic polyhydric alcohol and a heterocyclic aromatic polyhydric alcohol are important compounds as a raw material of a polymer substance, such as a synthetic fiber and a synthetic resin, for example, polyester and polyurethane.
The following processes have been known as an industrial production process of an aromatic alcohol. Patent Document 1 discloses a process of catalytic hydrogenation of an aromatic carboxylate ester, Patent Document 2 discloses a process of hydrolysis of benzyl chloride, and Patent Document 3 discloses a process of diazotizing benzylamine through reaction with a nitrite salt and then decomposing.
However, these processes have the following problems and thus are not always suitable for industrial production. Specifically, the process disclosed in Patent Document 1 requires a high temperature and a high pressure, and thus the target alcohol tends to be further reduced to form an aromatic hydrocarbon as a by-product. The process disclosed in Patent Document 2 uses chlorine, which brings about problems of corrosion of equipments and treatment of salts. The process disclosed in Patent Document 3 requires a nitrite salt, which is expensive, as a raw material, and furthermore has a problem in treatment of salts.
An industrially useful process of production of a heterocyclic aromatic alcohol has not yet been known.